It’s hard not to root for TJ Grant. Here’s a guy who reached the highest level of the sport through talent and hard work alone. He never trash-talked his way into big fights. He wasn’t a good-looking poster boy who was given an easy road by promoters. He’s not known for flashy kicks and sharp grooming. He entered what is arguably the most competitive division in all of mixed martial arts, beat the crap out of five consecutive opponents, and managed to stay humble.

So here we are in November, four months after Grant first made his concussion public, and he still hasn’t completely cleared the cobwebs. As reported on last night’s episode of UFC Tonight, Grant’s health remains less than 100%, and he’s unsure when he’ll be able to return to competition. MMAFighting passes along more details:

When was the last time we’ve seen an episode of The Ultimate Fighter that didn’t feature a fight? Has this not happened since Season 3 episode 6, when Noah Inhofer left the house over a letter from his jealous girlfriend? (TUF armchair-historians, please feel free to correct me in the comments section.)

The mood was light in the beginning of last night’s episode of TUF 18, with Team Rousey enjoying a backyard BBQ and male strippers. And then, the moment that maybe a few of you have been waiting for: The Coaches’ Challenge. The game is rock climbing, with a $10,000 cash-stack awarded to the winning coach and an additional $1,500 for every member of her team. Ronda out-hustles Miesha at the top of the wall and yells “FUCK YOU BITCH!” (“I just like Miesha being in the habit of always getting beaten by me,” she says later.)

But the good times could only last so long. Team Rousey teammates Anthony Gutierrez and David Grant start cutting weight for their semi-final showdown, and Gutierrez’s casual approach to his diet is coming back to haunt him. On fight day, he wakes up at 145 pounds, a full weight class over where he’s supposed to be. Four hours later, he hits the scales at 140.

It has been announced, I am sad to say that my fight career is over. I have been having kidney problems that have gotten much worse recently and just found out that my kidney function has dropped to 47%. If I continue to train, fight, and cut weight then I run the risk of permanent damage. I have been advised by my Specialist to retire and move on and that is what I will be doing. This is not how I wanted to go out, but I have to believe that God has another path for me. Thanks to all of you who supported me throughout my career.

Yesterday morning, Roach entered a gym in Macau for an open workout scheduled ahead of Pacquiao’s clash with Brandon Rios this Saturday. Shortly after entering, Roach got into a heated altercation with Brandon Rios’ trainers, Robert Garcia and Alex Ariza, regarding gym time. When Rios’ crew refused to leave despite their time being up, Roach called Garcia a “piece of shit,” setting into motion a back-and-forth that would result in Roach being kicked in the chest, called a “faggot” repeatedly, and having his Parkinson’s disease mocked and laughed at by Rios and his crew of troglodyte cohorts.

Now, while some of the blame for this altercation can be placed on Roach for his overly-aggressive approach (and somewhat insidious use of the term “Mexican motherfucker”), to act as if Garcia and Ariza’s childish mocking of a boxing legend’s incurable disease is anything less than despicable, abhorrent behavior is to sell the incident short.

Fuck you, Robert Garcia. Fuck you, Alex Ariza. Fuck you both to Hell. May your tiny, tiny genitals be severed from your bodies and fed to the meanest, junkyardiest dogs this planet has to offer while the rest of you is cast to the boats.

After the jump: A second angle of the confrontation, as well as a little backstory on the rough history between Roach and Ariza.

Unfortunately for Riddle, it looks like he will have to start looking for a “real job” once again (I hear Josh Rosenthal is seeking an understudy/mule), as he has now been released from his Bellator contract after pulling out of his second straight fight. Said Bellator Director of Communications Anthony Mazzuca in a prepared statement (via MMAFighting):

Matt was a guy we had high hopes for coming into Bellator. After Matt suffered his rib injury and withdrew from our tournament, we went back to the drawing board and got Matt another fight on November 22nd.

Unfortunately, Matt very recently informed us he would not be fighting on November 22nd from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and at that point we decided to release Matt from Bellator. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Further muddying the “Deep Waters” (I’m so sorry, you guys) is the fact that no solid reasoning has been given for Riddle’s withdrawal from the card. As you might expect, Riddle’s scheduled opponent, Nathan Coy, is understandably pissed…

Souza’s recent TKO of Yushin Okami, gave him his second win in the UFC and his fifth-straight win overall; his last four fights have all ended by first-round stoppage. The former Strikeforce middleweight champion is quickly becoming a top UFC contender at 185 pounds, but to stay “in the mix,” he’ll have to find a way to beat Carmont, the French veteran who has gone 6-0 in the UFC since making his Octagon debut two years ago. Carmont most recently cruised to a unanimous decision win over Costa Philippou at UFC 165, using a takedown-heavy gameplan that Philippou clearly wasn’t expecting.

Though UFC Fight Night 36 was originally reported to take place on February 8th with a live broadcast on FOX Sports 2, the UFC decided to bump it back a week, and the event is now slated to air on FOX Sports 1.

In any case, UFC president Dana White is intent on bringing GSP back to fight Hendricks again and, according to a new report from Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, who is in Macau to cover the Manny Pacquiao/Brandon Rios boxing match this week, “Rush” told “PacMan” trainer Freddie Roach that he’ll never fight again if he doesn’t have him in his corner.

Roach said he has yet to speak to St-Pierre on the telephone, but said the champion texted him.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to fight again unless you are in my corner,’” Roach said. Asked to clarify if that meant on fight night, as well, Roach said, “Absolutely.” To this point, Roach has never been in a UFC fighter’s corner on the night of a fight.

Roach, always eager to promote himself, also said that he “pretty much came up with the game plan” for St. Pierre against Hendricks. So…good job?